Sam Altman humorously turns down Musk's $97.4bn acquisition offer

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, rejected a $97.4 billion acquisition offer from a consortium led by Elon Musk, BBC reported.

Speaking at the AI Action Summit in Paris, Altman stated, "We are not for sale," reaffirming OpenAI’s commitment to its mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity.

Musk's lawyer, Marc Toberoff, confirmed that Musk had submitted the takeover bid. In a cheeky response, Altman posted on Musk's social media platform X, saying, "No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."

OpenAI operates with a unique structure that mixes nonprofit and for-profit components, and Musk has suggested returning the company to its nonprofit origins. 

However, Altman has criticised Musk’s intentions, citing Musk’s ownership of xAI, a competitor. He argued that Musk was attempting to acquire OpenAI because he could not outpace it in the market.

While Altman’s vision for OpenAI includes transforming it into a fully for-profit company to drive AI research, the company’s board will ultimately decide its fate.

The $97.4 billion bid is well below OpenAI’s last valuation of $157 billion, and recent discussions suggest the company could be worth $300 billion. 

Musk’s group is reportedly willing to raise their offer, with the aim of securing OpenAI’s technology for further development.